Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass

Last Sunday I was preparing to bake chocolate mint cupcakes with my 4 and 6 year old nieces. They were on step stools so they could reach the counter. My sister was watching a movie in the living room and one of my 4 year old niece’s favourite songs came up. She gasped with pleasure, jumped off the step stool and ran off to the living room to sing along at the top of her lungs, “WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS MY FRIEND! NO TIME FOR LOOSERS FOR WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD!” She came back to the kitchen absolutely satisfied with the experience to resume her other favourite activity, baking.

I envied her zest for life, she seizes every moment of her time awake and sees life as an endless adventure. She just came to my room now as I’m writing this and she’s a bee.

This year I discovered that I love Pintrest. I have a few boards that range from Gift Ideas, Travel, Recipes, and Home Décor. Yet my most popular re-pin that is almost at 1000 is a simple one from my Faith & Inspiration Board (See Pic). 

It’s a placard with the simple words, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass its about learning to dance in the rain.” When I first saw it childhood memories that I had long forgotten flooded back to me.

I remembered how I used to dance and play in the rain. I had no care of how my hair, my clothes or my shoes would be affected. My older sister and I would remove our shoes and splash in the flowing water as we walked home from school, while cautiously watching out for our parents’ car each time a car drove by. We would step out of the water and continue walking like the decorous young women my mother was attempting to mould; the cars would pass and we’d be back in the water.

We grow up and forget the joy of living, we forget who we are and we spend our adult lives searching for a nebulous meaning of happiness. I love purple Jacaranda trees that bloom in Spring. We have one in our front yard. I love taking pictures of it, but this year I was too busy to take the time, I looked out the kitchen window today and almost all the purple blooms are gone. If I took lessons from childhood I would have delayed that errand that was so important to enjoy the simple gift of the purple bloom of my own Jacaranda tree. The child would never be able to recognize the adult, they would be strangers.

One of the ways we can begin working on capturing that joy of living is to find our authentic voice, our essence, and the child you once were will gladly help you recall that authentic voice.

EE Cummings once said, “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”  

This article is contributed by Pumza Sixishe+ (Lead Start Family)